1) Release Metroid Prime in time for Christmas sales in the US (the market the game is most popular in), and then around the world several months later.
2) Release the game worldwide simultaneously in January/February, the months when the least games are sold (because everyone already bought a bunch for Christmas).
When one considers that the typical console owner buys, tops, four or five titles for the console, I think the GC is in great shape (lord knows I own a small fortune's worth).
Slashdot people seem to have this idea that console owners only buy a few games. Look around the web for sales data. The GameCube is selling an average of 12 games per console sold, and the Xbox is averaging about 10.
PS2 numbers are probably lower as a very high portion of the Japanese sales (at least early on) were solely for use as a DVD player, as at the time of the PS2's launch, it was significantly cheaper than most DVD players in Japan.
Metroid Prime didn't do too bad. Just under a million sales last I heard. Yes, for a major Nintendo title, that is on the low side. But for most publishers, that's a huge success.
They ignored Metroid for so long because Japan doesn't care for it much. But every time Miyamoto came to the US, he kept getting asked about a new Metroid. So he realized that the US likes Metroid, and that's what caused Nintendo to bring it back.
I've found it depends on who you're matched up against. If you're matched against an opponent of equal skill, I've seen games go on for over an hour with several changes in strategy from each side.
If you're mismatched, which happens often as the random match making allows too big of a level difference, then the game is usually over in 20 minutes and is a slaughter.
Mozilla Mail already has an option for each individual mail account to use a different SMTP server.
Under Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings -> Outgoing Server, you can provide a list of SMTP servers and mark one as the default.
Under Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings -> Click on the account in question -> Advanced, you can pick what server to use out of the list mentioned above, including a use default choice.
The problem with 3D platform games is making jumps. It's very hard to properly judge the distance to jump unless you have a side view - which is what you always have in a 2D game. In 3D though, it's not always possible to get a good camera angle. This is the main reason the waterpack was added to Mario Sunshine - to allow you to land jumps easier.
I wouldn't be so sure about that claim about Nintendo. They said in the beginning that one of the reasons the GameCube uses the minidiscs is so that they can be used in a portable. The GameCube currently costs them about $100 to produce, and they've been toying with LCD screens for it for a few years. They could quite possibly release a portable version of the GameCube to compete.
GBA carts are currently 8 Megabytes, max 64. Just like N64 carts. There are a few games that are 16 megabytes right now, but not many. Go check GBA ROM sites if you want proof.
I'm quite curious what prompted Factor 5 to do this. Factor 5 hasn't done any work for a non Nintendo system in at least 5 years - at least as far back as the N64 Rogue Squadron (ignoring PC ports of some of their games).
They've generally been considered to be an unofficial Nintendo second party for years. I think the story is Nintendo made an offer, but they turned it down only because it would've meant they would have to end their relationship with LucasArts and wouldn't be able to make Star Wars games anymore. But they've been very heavily involved with Nintendo - they were the only outside developer to receive the N64 microcode from Nintendo, and they worked with Nintendo to create the sound system for the GameCube.
Win9x WAS designed exactly like you wished it was.
Edit MSDOS.SYS and change BootGUI=1 to 0 and you'd get your command prompt on boot, and typing win would start the GUI. Or, download TweakUI off MS's website and get a control panel to make the change.
I don't know anyone that considers REM a political band. People listen to System of a Down because they're heavy, not for content. It's been so long since Pearl Jam was remotely popular I can't comment on them. And I've never known anyone who listens to Annie DiFranco.
A good example of a politcal band would be Rage Against the Machine. And almost everyone I know that listens to them listens in spite of the politicalness, not because of it.
The PS2 has been making money for quite a while. Remember, its less powerful than the other systems and has been in production a lot longer, so the costs are low on it. The only thing that's been stopping Sony from cutting the price is the fact that people have been perfectly willing to buy the system without a cut.
As to the Xbox, yes, everything indicates they've always been losing money on it.
The last I heard on the GameCube was Nintendo was getting them made for about $105 +/- $5-10. So Nintendo may or may not be taking a loss with the new pricing.
These are the same consumers that wouldn't upgrade their hardware because they believe they lack the need.
Don't you think people should decide for themselves when its time to upgrade their hardware? I would think they would have a better idea of when they need more power than you do. Just because you have a need for a multigigahertz machine doesn't mean most people do.
I could see the registry explaination almost making sense during startup. But an app isn't going to re-read a preference every time it draws a UI widget. It'll read them all in at startup and store them.
Also, searching thru 10 megs of data for the registry is definately going to be slower than reading and parsing a 2k text file, especially if you're actually using all the info in the text config file.
A more likely explaination of why Windows GUI apps are faster is because of how GDI resources work. All the UI in your app gets copied into GDI's memory space, which runs in kernel space. Of course, the problem with this approach is GDI resources are rather limited (altho they seem to increase in each Windows release). Ever see your icons turn black? Or open a new window and the toolbar isn't showing up? That means you ran out of GDI resources.
Metroid Prime is not the game to pick if you want to call Samus sexy. All she does is take off the helmet, and her hair really looks like its been sitting under a helmet for a while.
Metroid Fusion, on the other hand, has the full armor come off at the end... Super Metroid as well, but the shot is from much further away.
Linux is a lot easier to port to other architectures for several reasons:
1) Most Unix applications are written to be able to run on a variety of different Unix systems. That means most of userspace was written with some degree of portability in mind.
2) Linux isn't concerned much about binary compatibility. Each major version of RedHat is binary incompatible with the last. New GCC and libc releases regularly break binary compatibility. WinXP will still run software written for the DOS, Win3.x, Win9x, and WinNT product lines. The selling point of the x86-64 over other 64bit chips is that it runs your old software. It would be pointless for Windows to drop the back compatibility.
3) Microsoft has to make sure 3rd parties have time to develop and test drivers on the new system. Remember, not only do the companies have to spend time on it, but Microsoft has to take time to certify the drivers afterwards. I'm not going to get into whether or not certification really means anything, but if nothing else, it takes time for all the paperwork to be processed at both ends.
Re:The legacy part that bothers me...
on
Legacy-Free PCs
·
· Score: 1
The interrupt is used to optimize multitasking performance. The first time I thread uses the FPU after a context switch, that IRQ is triggered. The OS then marks the thread as using the FPU. When a context switch occurs, the FPU state is only saved if the thread made use of the FPU. I'm not positive, but Linux might not even load in the app's previously saved FPU state until that IRQ is triggered.
They may be getting small portions of the registry. But no where near a significant amount of it. Think about it, the registry is several megs. Windows Update doesn't take very long to send the information, even over a modem. There's no way they could be sending more than small sections of the registry.
Actually, I saw this full interview back when it first came out. I don't remember the source of it, but back then no one doubted it authenticity. Other points of interest Gates brought up in the interview:
* Upgrades aren't for fixing bugs. People won't upgrade just for bug fixes.
* When asked about competitor's products, he just kinda laughed them all off and basically said "it's obvious our products are better in all aspects."
* Specifically took pot shots at Geoworks, and I think OS/2 also.
The idea behind downloading into the cache and then copying it is that the download starts as soon as you click the link. While you're navigating the file selector deciding what to do with it, the transfer is in progress.
Slashdot Mirror
Lets say you're Nintendo. You have two options:
1) Release Metroid Prime in time for Christmas sales in the US (the market the game is most popular in), and then around the world several months later.
2) Release the game worldwide simultaneously in January/February, the months when the least games are sold (because everyone already bought a bunch for Christmas).
Which would you pick?
They've already pulled it off. The PAL version of Zelda won't work with the Freeloader. link
Microsoft does give special treatment to special executables. I never tried any testing to see what exactly triggered it, but do the following:
Install Windows 98
Delete the Internet Explorer icon off the desktop
Install Netscape Communicator 4.x
Look at your desktop - the Internet Explorer icon will be back.
When one considers that the typical console owner buys, tops, four or five titles for the console, I think the GC is in great shape (lord knows I own a small fortune's worth).
Slashdot people seem to have this idea that console owners only buy a few games. Look around the web for sales data. The GameCube is selling an average of 12 games per console sold, and the Xbox is averaging about 10.
PS2 numbers are probably lower as a very high portion of the Japanese sales (at least early on) were solely for use as a DVD player, as at the time of the PS2's launch, it was significantly cheaper than most DVD players in Japan.
Metroid Prime didn't do too bad. Just under a million sales last I heard. Yes, for a major Nintendo title, that is on the low side. But for most publishers, that's a huge success.
They ignored Metroid for so long because Japan doesn't care for it much. But every time Miyamoto came to the US, he kept getting asked about a new Metroid. So he realized that the US likes Metroid, and that's what caused Nintendo to bring it back.
I've found it depends on who you're matched up against. If you're matched against an opponent of equal skill, I've seen games go on for over an hour with several changes in strategy from each side.
If you're mismatched, which happens often as the random match making allows too big of a level difference, then the game is usually over in 20 minutes and is a slaughter.
Mozilla Mail already has an option for each individual mail account to use a different SMTP server.
Under Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings -> Outgoing Server, you can provide a list of SMTP servers and mark one as the default.
Under Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings -> Click on the account in question -> Advanced, you can pick what server to use out of the list mentioned above, including a use default choice.
Considering Nintendo's *profit* is about the same as the *income* of Microsoft's games division, I see no need for them to worry.
The problem with 3D platform games is making jumps. It's very hard to properly judge the distance to jump unless you have a side view - which is what you always have in a 2D game. In 3D though, it's not always possible to get a good camera angle. This is the main reason the waterpack was added to Mario Sunshine - to allow you to land jumps easier.
I wouldn't be so sure about that claim about Nintendo. They said in the beginning that one of the reasons the GameCube uses the minidiscs is so that they can be used in a portable. The GameCube currently costs them about $100 to produce, and they've been toying with LCD screens for it for a few years. They could quite possibly release a portable version of the GameCube to compete.
GBA carts are currently 8 Megabytes, max 64. Just like N64 carts. There are a few games that are 16 megabytes right now, but not many. Go check GBA ROM sites if you want proof.
I'm quite curious what prompted Factor 5 to do this. Factor 5 hasn't done any work for a non Nintendo system in at least 5 years - at least as far back as the N64 Rogue Squadron (ignoring PC ports of some of their games).
They've generally been considered to be an unofficial Nintendo second party for years. I think the story is Nintendo made an offer, but they turned it down only because it would've meant they would have to end their relationship with LucasArts and wouldn't be able to make Star Wars games anymore. But they've been very heavily involved with Nintendo - they were the only outside developer to receive the N64 microcode from Nintendo, and they worked with Nintendo to create the sound system for the GameCube.
So why are they touching the Xbox?
Win9x WAS designed exactly like you wished it was.
Edit MSDOS.SYS and change BootGUI=1 to 0 and you'd get your command prompt on boot, and typing win would start the GUI. Or, download TweakUI off MS's website and get a control panel to make the change.
I don't know anyone that considers REM a political band. People listen to System of a Down because they're heavy, not for content. It's been so long since Pearl Jam was remotely popular I can't comment on them. And I've never known anyone who listens to Annie DiFranco.
A good example of a politcal band would be Rage Against the Machine. And almost everyone I know that listens to them listens in spite of the politicalness, not because of it.
The PS2 has been making money for quite a while. Remember, its less powerful than the other systems and has been in production a lot longer, so the costs are low on it. The only thing that's been stopping Sony from cutting the price is the fact that people have been perfectly willing to buy the system without a cut.
As to the Xbox, yes, everything indicates they've always been losing money on it.
The last I heard on the GameCube was Nintendo was getting them made for about $105 +/- $5-10. So Nintendo may or may not be taking a loss with the new pricing.
You do realize MP3's became popular before Windows included support for them, right? Never stopped anyone from using Winamp.
Speaking of Winamp, almost everyone I know uses it, regardless of their level of computer skills. Winamp supports Ogg Vorbis natively.
Ever try running Kazaa Lite and Netscape 7 simultaneously? You'll get a Kazaa Lite animation in the status bar.
Don't think Kazaa Lite is as innocent as it claims to be.
These are the same consumers that wouldn't upgrade their hardware because they believe they lack the need.
Don't you think people should decide for themselves when its time to upgrade their hardware? I would think they would have a better idea of when they need more power than you do. Just because you have a need for a multigigahertz machine doesn't mean most people do.
I could see the registry explaination almost making sense during startup. But an app isn't going to re-read a preference every time it draws a UI widget. It'll read them all in at startup and store them.
Also, searching thru 10 megs of data for the registry is definately going to be slower than reading and parsing a 2k text file, especially if you're actually using all the info in the text config file.
A more likely explaination of why Windows GUI apps are faster is because of how GDI resources work. All the UI in your app gets copied into GDI's memory space, which runs in kernel space. Of course, the problem with this approach is GDI resources are rather limited (altho they seem to increase in each Windows release). Ever see your icons turn black? Or open a new window and the toolbar isn't showing up? That means you ran out of GDI resources.
Metroid Prime is not the game to pick if you want to call Samus sexy. All she does is take off the helmet, and her hair really looks like its been sitting under a helmet for a while.
Metroid Fusion, on the other hand, has the full armor come off at the end... Super Metroid as well, but the shot is from much further away.
Linux is a lot easier to port to other architectures for several reasons:
1) Most Unix applications are written to be able to run on a variety of different Unix systems. That means most of userspace was written with some degree of portability in mind.
2) Linux isn't concerned much about binary compatibility. Each major version of RedHat is binary incompatible with the last. New GCC and libc releases regularly break binary compatibility. WinXP will still run software written for the DOS, Win3.x, Win9x, and WinNT product lines. The selling point of the x86-64 over other 64bit chips is that it runs your old software. It would be pointless for Windows to drop the back compatibility.
3) Microsoft has to make sure 3rd parties have time to develop and test drivers on the new system. Remember, not only do the companies have to spend time on it, but Microsoft has to take time to certify the drivers afterwards. I'm not going to get into whether or not certification really means anything, but if nothing else, it takes time for all the paperwork to be processed at both ends.
The interrupt is used to optimize multitasking performance. The first time I thread uses the FPU after a context switch, that IRQ is triggered. The OS then marks the thread as using the FPU. When a context switch occurs, the FPU state is only saved if the thread made use of the FPU. I'm not positive, but Linux might not even load in the app's previously saved FPU state until that IRQ is triggered.
They may be getting small portions of the registry. But no where near a significant amount of it. Think about it, the registry is several megs. Windows Update doesn't take very long to send the information, even over a modem. There's no way they could be sending more than small sections of the registry.
Actually, I saw this full interview back when it first came out. I don't remember the source of it, but back then no one doubted it authenticity. Other points of interest Gates brought up in the interview:
* Upgrades aren't for fixing bugs. People won't upgrade just for bug fixes.
* When asked about competitor's products, he just kinda laughed them all off and basically said "it's obvious our products are better in all aspects."
* Specifically took pot shots at Geoworks, and I think OS/2 also.
The idea behind downloading into the cache and then copying it is that the download starts as soon as you click the link. While you're navigating the file selector deciding what to do with it, the transfer is in progress.